Why I have decided to return to Le Mans

We will compete in Le Mans 24 Hours in 2012, that is the first thing I must say.
Dome will send an updated version of the S102 called the S102.5 under the management of Hiroshi Fushida to Le Mans for its 17th challenge in the 24-hour race. Pescarolo will take responsibility for the race operation. Our cash flow is as if an extravagant and wasteful son keeps borrowing money to spend on Geisha, which is why we don’t have a choice not to enjoy the race.
Back in 2008, with our magnificent ambition and full of hope for a huge success, we invested obviously the largest budget in the history of Dome into the Le Mans project. It was still nothing compared to the budget Audi or some other big names had.
Sadly, though, it was impossible to keep the ambition and the hope going forward after the race, and therefore the Dome S102 had to site idle for a few years.
The Dome S102 which was displayed in the reception hall in our HQ has never been talkative, but every time I saw her it was as if she was a world class performer with no heart,

, who I believe has got world-class performance, left with no heart as if it was a cast off skin from some creature, I asked myself a question with the obvious answer, “why does she have to be held captive here?” Although I had always felt a sense of discomfort to see her sleeping there, three years quickly passed with no mercy.
Some of you may have started wondering why she had not had any chance to come back to competition. I will disclose the reason in future, but the main point today is not about that. The thing which has turned out to be obvious after the three-year boredom were more than enough for the Dome S102 and us. It is not our duty or obligation to compete in Le Mans 24 Hours. We have no reason why we take up the challenge the race.
There is no necessity for us to go to France. We don’t have plenty of spare money, either. All the above are absolutely correct but are not enough to stop us from going crazy about her.
Dome is a racecar constructor. Therefore our pride is in our technology used to develop racecars but not in race operation, we are not a racing team. For that reason we have often worked together with race teams specialised in sports car racing such as Racing For Holland. Some non-Japanese teams did contact us and asked us if they can lease the Dome S102 in the last three years. We also received some very interesting offer for the 2012 season. We would have been more than happy to make a contract with one of them if we hadn’t had the bad memories in the past. As mentioned in the article “Graduation from Le Mans”, all the relationships with the race teams in the past ended up with unpleasant financial disputes.
As I never want another problem like that happening again, I have decided to fund the whole 2012 programme with Dome’s own money.
There are still several components here and there on the Dome S102 we would like to update before the first test to be honest, but this time we have decided to limit design period and use most of the time and budget for developing and setting-up the car by running as many tests as possible. We have learnt from the previous challenges in which we suffered from lack of testing due to the too long design phase, and every race finished before we found the limit of our racecars. We will keep the new policy even after this year’s race and will find the ultimate performance of Dome S102 by the end of this year.

We have to admit delivery of some important components has already delayed in the current design / manufacturing phase, which started last December.
Because of the delay, we are now expecting even the worst case – i.e., not only postponing the scheduled shakedown but no update on the car in the delayed shakedown – but we are still working hard to get the car ready by the scheduled shakedown in mid March.
What we have already installed are the DB V8 engine supplied by Judd, the tyres supplied by Michelin all of this is under the management of director Hiroshi Fushida, and the chief engineer Hiroshi Yuchi.
Our policy on the race drivers has been concrete, though, which is “two non-Japanese drivers + one Japanese driver”.
We entrust race operation to the French squad, Pescarolo, this year. The audiences will see a Dome S102.5 occupying one of the two entries Pescarolo has got, but what is actually happening is Dome outsources the race operation to Pescarolo.
As I always explain Dome is not interested in being the best at 24 hour race strategy because we are a racecar constructor. Le Mans 24 Hours is an endurance race indeed, but what Dome aims for is the speed in the qualifying sessions in which the true performance of the racecars is tested. Incidents that could happen during the 24 hours, such as being collected by the car in front, engine blow, and punctures, are as out of our control as a natural disaster for a racecar constructor. For that reason our pride will never be hurt by a bad result due to such incidents during the 24 hours. Following the policy of ours, we have asked Pescarolo to cancel the 24 hour test Pescarolo had originally planned but have asked to have as many short tests as possible during which we will develop and set-up the car. I am pretty certain the guys in the French squad are shocked to know how we prepare for the 24-hour race, though…
That’s how we have ended up with this programme for the 2012 Le Mans 24 Hours. The detail of the Dome S102.5 and the team structure will be disclosed here and by Hidenori Suzuki (Sportscar-racing) soon. I hope you would read it through, too.RacecarEngineering-December2011

Facinated with making things at a very early age, switch from models to radio controlled toys. Then on to audio equipment and after that bikes. From the age of 16 on I become deeply involved with cars. Not satisfied with simply admiring the form or just driving them, I nearly went to the verge of giving up after finding out the cost and amount of knowhow required to build cars and what I had.
In springtime when I was 19 I met Mr.Thojiro Ukiya at Suzuka Circuit, which I visited on a very regular basis, and he asked me to modify a Honda S600 and make it into a racing car which won it's debut race.
After this it was mostly a hobby but I was able to continue making racing cars. In 1975 I form Dome Co.,Ltd. as a company.
From styling to design and also construction, I have been involved in many different aspects of building cars. But as you can see from the fact that there are no other real racing car constructors apart from Dome here in Japan, it is extremely difficult to cultivate business. So it has gradually become my business to create business. Now I leave the engineering aspects to my able staff, and my current main objective is to create a climate in which we may conduct business in a normal manner.

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